2012 10 11 Thursday

Walney to Whitby Day 3

Tan Hill to Potto

What a fabulous experience, not to everyone's taste admittedly but staying at the Tan Hill Inn didn't disappoint. What was good? Triumph over adversity for one. Seeing the publican manage without his chefs in one of the most inhospitable places in the country. The pub is managing to survive. Also, the beer was good and the coal fires remain an old fashioned pleasure even though they are a necessity. There are no mains services up here: borehole water and diesel generated electricity. Being able to stay somewhere on the middle of the ride was also quite important to us and there's nowhere else anywhere near so the Tan Hill it had to be. What was wrong? You'd better ask Dave, he has a list as long as his arm! To start with I seem to think he said something about cleanliness not being state of the art . . . .

The sun rose at dawn, well it would wouldn’t it! It produced an idyllic scene not to be repeated for the rest of the day as the cloud soon came over. Our breakfast was made by Adrian who was candid about his lack of experience of cooking breakfasts. Nevertheless, the bacon and egg sandwich was good and we survived.

With no bills to settle and our farewells said we braved the elements, and of that you can be certain there are always elements at work up there. We cycled eastward into the distance. Very annoyingly, the terrain yet again proved to fit our newly discovered truism, there is always an uphill after stopping for something to eat.

Today, there was an anticipation of the weather being against us up on the tops so I started the day wearing thermal long Johns and was glad I did. The strong south easterly wind was cutting.

We thought we had 16 miles of quick descent to Bowes. We estimated our descent over Stonesdale Moor to Bowes from available data . . but got it quite wrong. We didn't allow for the number of uphill rises across the plateau-like moor. Equally we didn't expect the long length of bridleway of very rough and gravelly surface which slowed us down. 

Eventually we got back to tarmac which was largely downhill. When we arrived in Bowes we found no coffee shop only a derelict castle so made our way across more moorland past Nova Scotia! to get to Barnard Castle for one.

On the way I discovered another part of my railway from yesterday, the disused local Lartington station. In fact, checking the map shows that much of the A66 dual carriageway over the summit is built on the former railway.

Barnard Castle was a welcome break for coffee at NEsT coffee shop and gallery as recommended by the nice old lady walking into town. Not forgetting the millionaire’s shortcake to die for made with condensed milk!

Like many northern towns Barnard Castle has an attractive look due to the broad main street running through its centre and the predominantly Georgian properties on each side. The octagonal Market Hall here is a fascinating feature.  

At this point we were leaving the W2W as it made its way to Sunderland and continued our own journey towards the North York Moors and Whitby. The landscape changed enormously from here onwards, from the grouse moors of Stainmore and Stonesdale to pastoral farming then arable land. In some ways the flatter the landscape the less interesting but it had the advantage of making the cycling easier, much easier.

By now we were travelling in the general direction of the river Tees. We crossed it at the pretty village of Whorlton but not for the first time. That was at Barnard Castle over the listed cast iron aqueduct. Here, the Whorlton suspension bridge is a listed toll iron bridge, the first road bridge of its type. There’s history all round us!

Villages, fields, hamlets, castles, manors, halls, churches - we passed them all and passed their ilk again and again as we progressed towards the sea. The air became quite still at times where we were sheltered. At other times it was breezy but much of that was of our making as we cycled in a east south easterly direction doing about 15 mph.

Apart from the roadkill carrion the wildlife we saw along the way was mostly birds. On the flashes and ploughed fields were many sea and migrating birds. For the second day running we identified a buzzard. Yesterday it was the screeching we heard. Today we saw one in a tree, its watchful eyes on us I'm sure. Our cycling earlier over the moors had disturbed the red grouse into panic clucking.  Later a skein of overwintering or migrating geese descended in front of us to roost in a ploughed field.

Nearing Darlington our major landmarks were the A1, the A19 and the East Coast main line. We then needed to search out lunch with not having had much breakfast and aimed for Croft on Tees. The first and obvious eatery was The Croft, a traditional hotel with barely any customers. We had reservations about it but decided to give it a go. The place had seen better days but the ciabattas were so really good, crunchy and to die for. There is a plan to refurbish the hotel and among the things to go is a remarkable "feature", the quite bizarre black glazed gargoyle urinals. In the meantime they continue to scare folk, especially young customers so the staff say.

Over the Tees again and cycling through the beautiful village of Hurworth Place beside a meander in the river was delightful. Its Conservation Area status will continue to protect it.

And finally we're in the land of the big tractor, more scary even than the gargoyle urinals. It's time to sew seeds again for next year's crops so much disc harrowing was afoot.

Tonight's stop finally loomed up at Potto, the Dog and Duck, a traditional-looking pub but really modern inside. Such a treat after last night, a beautiful contrast, with the added extra of James Cook Brewery beers. The dinner was fine dining style, picture on a plate but very pleasant.

Today's distance 54 miles and height gain 1330 feet.

Post Script: Michael and Brian have gained a reputation on this ride for stopping but it's not been deliberate. They have had joint trouble along with Dave whose age is against him. He’s just plain old but don’t tell him I told you he was the best cyclist. For the next even I'm sure they hope the problems can be controlled or eradicated. Stephen and I do!